The Voyage
by NinaWhite
Summary: David and Elizabeth set out on their journey to reach the Engineers and find their answers. But why wait until reaching the planet? Though the ship itself is a vehicle of battle it may contain clues to this strange race and the two go about finding them in the only ways they know how. Elizabeth finds herself wondering where the line between feeling and mimicry is drawn.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Necessary Repairs

The second ship was identical to the first. Identical in gloom, in layout and in suffering. While it looked more less intact there were bodies on this ship as well. Engineer corpses strew here and there. Some intact, others torn apart and some that looked as though they had been melted. All of the bodies where the exosuit had been compromised had rotten down to bone or desiccated to scentless dry husks that seemed so much smaller, so much more insignificant than the giant she had ran from and left to fight the closest thing to a child she would ever have.

The pain killer was beginning to wear off as Elizabeth dragged David's headless body through the corridors of the ship, his head in the heavy duffle bag that was slung over her shoulder. The sting and pull in her stomach was the first thing that registered, not helped by the heavy blow from one of Weyland's goons. The slow trickle of warm fluid she had felt had formed a crust on her stomach and down one leg, crumbling a little more with each step.

After what felt like a life time she reached the door way to the control room her whole body burned. A hot sweat coated her skin as she unceremoniously dropped David's limp body. Panting and her limbs shaking, Elizabeth unzipped the bag. David's serenely smiling features quickly turned to a frown that came close to mimicking concern.

"How do I open the door?" she asked, her breath coming hard and fast and her mild Scottish accent shining through a little harder in her pain.

"The panel on the left," he said, his voice calm as ever, though a little faster than she had heard him speak. "Run your finger down the slight groove." She followed his instructions, swaying and with an unsteady hand. She made a few mistakes, but he stayed ever patient with her, probably used to bumbling humans by now. Eventually she got the door open and placed his head carefully inside the large round room before looking to the impossible weight that was the rest of him. "Doctor Shaw?" Her eyes drifted to him, her focus slipping for a moment blurring the room. She wiped at her eyes and found them wet. "I understand that you have been though many traumatic events in last few days, but we really must hurry. Who knows how long the Engineer will be held off by the creature you removed from yourself. Just a few more feet and then a simple necessary repair and I will be able to properly care for your wounds and get you to safety."

It must have been the shear amount of pain killers she had taken, or perhaps she was simply too tired to properly out think him, but what he said made sense. She needed him and she needed him whole. She was sure it was a terrible, awful idea to give the android what it wanted, but she simply couldn't see another way in the here and now. So she stumbled towards his immobile form and reached down, pushing through the pain, the exhaustion, the soul weary ache that told her to just give in and lie down and die.

She grabbed his collar with both hands and began to drag again. Against her will, a cry of pain escaped her, a sob wracking her body. But she wouldn't give up. Even as she could not stop herself from crying loud ugly tears under the gaze of the android. Every step she took, every inch she dragged him hurt more and bit harder than the last. Eventually she had him inside the room and with one last pull, she shoved him against the wall, his body almost sitting up but not quite.

She collapsed by his side, damn near the last of her will power and strength worn out. Still crying, she curled up into a ball. David's voice reached her, speaking guttural language she didn't understand. She heard the doors shut and saw the pleasant green lights come on, illuminating the room, but she didn't care. Pain was all that mattered to her. Her body throbbed with it and her mind ached as though it had been set alight.

"Doctor Shaw, please, just a little more." David again, that lilting pleasantly ambiguous voice. She had grown to hate it and love it in equal amounts. Right now it was the most beautiful thing she could have heard. Using his shirt, she pulled herself up. Her legs had gone numb and she doubted their integrity enough to not even try to use them. She pulled herself into his lap and while still trying to control herself leaned over to grab her bag and by extension David's head. The angle was awkward and the harsh pull on her abdominal wound made her cry out again. But her fingers closed on the strap of her bag and she pulled it toward her, David's unnaturally blue eyes on her and his jaw clenched with something that could have been apprehension on a real human.

"Tell me what to do," she said, her voice shaky but determined and hard. David's eyes flicked to his body and then back.

"In the neck there should be something resembling a spinal column, but made of a titanium alloy and multiple wires running where the spinal cord should be." Focus on the task, focus on the voice. Focus on anything but how much it hurts. After taking a deep breath, she pulled herself up a little further into his lap and leaned forward against his eerily still chest. Tubes and wires in a grim mockery of human biology, even down to the white blood that David had assured her wasn't corrosive or toxic unless ingested in large quantities.

"I see it."

"Good. The wires should all be different colours. The first step is to reconnect them with the automatic soldering iron. Matching colours obviously. There should be some considerable give in the wires to allow work to be done, don't be afraid to pull them further out." She took hold of the wires and pulled, gently teasing them from whatever they were coiled around, her hand already coated in the grim white substance. About a foot of wire came free before she met any real resistance. She didn't pull them any further, didn't want to cause even more damage that she didn't have the strength to fix. She picked up David's head again and placed it in her lap, the android carefully avoiding eye contact with her. Perhaps embarrassment was another emotion he had been programmed to mimic, or perhaps he had some understanding of how inappropriate their positioning was. Either way she was too worn down to care.

The automatic soldering iron was in the bag as well. The devise was only really useful for repairs like this. The old fashioned method was still a more all round way of fixing things, but wire snaps like this were apparently common enough for it to become popular. The look of it reminded his of eyelash curlers. She fixed one end of the wire, the one protruding from David's head to the instrument, then did the same with the end uncoiling from his body before clamping down. There was a hiss as the tool did its job.

David's body spasmed. He balance fled her and with a yelp she fell. Only for strong arms to fly up and catch her. Long and delicate fingers gripped her waist and jerked her back into place with painful speed. And then froze. She sat for a moment, panting and trying to catch her breath from the shock before looking down to David's head with a half hearted frown. A single grim thread now connecting his to his body, the androids brown knitted together for a moment in something that looked like concentration coupled with mild confusion.

"Oh dear," he said eventually and as evenly as always. "I'm afraid I am unable to let go. I apologise Doctor Shaw. Perhaps a wire or two more will restore more of my bodily control." She gave him a nod before reaching up to wipe at her eyes with the back of her arm. The surface of her space suit rough and itching as she did. The more wires she reconnected, the more gruesome he began to look, like a parody of a nearly headless corpse, tendons and blood vessels somehow still intact. His legs twitched once or twice beneath her, responding to his renewed connection, but his hands never let go of her.

His face twitched as if in pain with the fusion of the last wire and she jumped at the sight of it. Not expecting something so base, so purely animal in origin, on something synthetic. "Are you alright?" she asked, worry pushing down her own agony and tiredness. He blinked a few times before putting on that serene smile once again. If it was meant to reassure her, it failed.

"Quite alright Doctor Shaw. I have just been made aware of the full extent of my damage, I am running a proper diagnostic now. Until that is complete there is little more to do other than to properly attach my head. If you would please hold me closer to my neck I will begin to reel in the wiring. Once that it done you should be able to simply click me back into place with one sharp twist." _Like breaking a neck in reverse,_ she thought.

Her arms barely responding to her anymore and heavy like lead, she let the automatic soldering iron fall from her fingers. It clanged loud and echoing against the metallic floor. It took all that was left of her to lift his head from her lap and raise it. Perhaps sensing that she couldn't keep going much longer, David began to pull in his mockery of a spinal cord, a clicking whir sounding from his chest as she struggled to play her part in this grim mimicry of medical attention.

Eventually his head was resting on his neck and the whirring stopped. She turned his head slightly right, metal scraping on metal until she felt it click down, one false vertebrae finding its way to connect to the next. "Just one sharp turn and you can rest." She nodded, David's eyes on her with their usual impossible placidity. The fringe of synthetic skin that edged his neck was pushed up by the collar of his suit the only real clue that David was a fake. It distracted her for a moment, somehow seeming more alarming, more _unreal_ than the wires and the white blood.

"Doctor Shaw?" She blinked and shook her head at the sound of his voice.

"Sorry," she said, her voice on the verge of breaking. Another smile, another attempt to reassure as she held his head in place.

"That's quite alright. If you please," he trailed off, glancing down to her arms.

A deep breath, one final push, this was it. After this she could stop for a moment, simply sit, sleep. Cry and bleed in the darkness without worry. The last of her strength went into the last sharp twist. There was a clunk rather than a crack and David twitched again, jerking her closer to him. She didn't fight the movement. Instead she slumped against him, limp like a rag doll. He remained as still as a corpse for a moment, his hands still on her waist as she cried, curling around him like a child around their mother.

Then one hand gracefully moved to encircle her back, the other hooking under her legs. She felt him rise smoothly to his feet and the distinctive bob of his walk, but she didn't care. He could rip her limb from limb right now and she would simply be glad that it was over. Instead he came to a stop, said something in the language of the Engineers and then took a seat.

One arm still holding her steady against his chest, he leaned forward and removed his hand from her legs. Green flashed before her eyes and she hid from it, burying her face him and squeezing her eyes shut. Sounds and lights invaded her senses and she wished that she could shout and scream at them until they went away, but all she could do was hiccup and cling to the android for any small comfort she could snatch.

Tiredness swarmed over her like a colony of ants. Claiming her bite by bite, washing through her and meeting no resistance. Her muscles loosened, her grip on David slackening as unconsciousness lurked on the edges of her mind, even as David's grip on her shifted to compensate for her own fleeing.

Her eyes snapped open as he picked her up bridal style once more and rose to his feet before carefully but quickly placing her back into the pilots chair. It was hard and uncomfortable, but it may as well be a feather bed for all she cared.

The android crouched at her knees, looking up to her earnestly, examining what he saw. The green light was still present, but dim, casting much of David's face in shadow.

"It seems the combination of painkillers and adrenalin are taking their toll on you, Doctor Shaw," he said, one hand giving her a small and not quite impersonal pat on the arm. "You'll be safe here while I go and salvage what I can from Miss Vickers' life raft. I won't tell you to rest. The conditions within this room will ensure that you simply sleep. I will attend your wounds when I return with medical equipment."

She wanted to stop him as he stood and turned his back to her. She wanted to cry out to not be left alone, not here, anywhere but here. He strode towards the door as the edges of her vision faded from green to black and began to close in. He hovered at the door frame once it had slid open before looking back to her over his shoulder, the fringe of fake skin twisting unnaturally as he did so.

"Thank you for administering this repair work Doctor Shaw. I assure you I will repay you in kind."

Elizabeth barely heard his words. The darkness of sleep hard earned overwhelmed her.

* * *

**A/N **Oh I'm going to enjoy this one. I've never poked at a dynamic like this before. Yes this will be heavily David/Doc, but after reading most of the fanfictions in this section I noticed something strange. There really isn't much about the Engineers culture. I intend to prod at this, as well as the unique set up that's been handed to me.

Also, just a warning. The start of this assumes a very slightly AU end to the movie. Consider this story to start while the Engineer is harbouring that beautiful parasite and before the ship with David and the good Doctor on board takes off.

Oh, and I don't have much of an eye for typos. If you spot one let me know and I'll fix it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Salvage

David locked the door to the control room behind him, nimble fingers dancing over the panel. While it wouldn't block the entrance of the Engineer for long, he had taken the liberty of changing the code to open the door so it would at very least delay it. Once done, he swiftly turned on his heal and ran.

His foot falls were silent and swift. Efficient like all of his movements. A quick diagnostic scan revealed that he was only running at fifty three percent capacity. The number was unsatisfactory, but considering the circumstances it would have to do. Besides, he was sure that Doctor Shaw had been operating somewhere in the low twenties over the last few hours.

She would require medical attention of course, but that would have to wait. His primary directive, to obey Mister Weyland, had been deleted upon his death. His secondary directive, to follow the orders of Miss Vickers when they did not interfere with his first directive had also been forced into the status of obsolete. All that was left of any real substance was his tertiary directive.

Care for Doctor Elizabeth Shaw.

Sloppy word choice on the part of his creators. Too many meanings could be inferred from that one sentence. Regardless of the semantics, it was now his primary motivation.

So he ran. He ran through the halls of the alien craft, following the schematics he had looked up while Doctor Shaw had cried in his lap. He didn't know what he was going to meet on the way to the life raft, or even once he was there, but for the sake of Doctor Shaw he intended to be prepared for it.

Finally he reached the door he was looking for. It was a small and unassuming thing. Over shadowed by the statues and over done imagery that surrounded it. Almost as though the very craft was ashamed to house this room.

Another brief dance of digits and the door bowed to his command. Sliding open to allow his entrance. His eyes rapidly flicked around the room, not wasting any time on accessing the appropriate human reaction.

David was not an android built for war. His body had been built to be able to perform heavy duty manual labour and was considerably stronger than a humans. His reflexes sharper largely thanks to his processing power and his inability to miss detail. The human eye skimmed over much, but cameras saw everything. But above all that, David had been built to learn.

Observation could teach much, and over the years he had observed Mister Weyland's guard very closely while in training and in a few instances in actual combat. While that could hardly amount to actual training with a weapon he was more than equipped to learn by doing.

So when David's eyes were met by a large round room crammed with weaponry that mostly resembled the guns and, strangely, the spears that could be found on Earth he felt certain that he could at least give a mediocre performance with them. He moved to the rack that contained what looked like small arms. The information he had gleaned from the ship had been most useful on this. He knew where the safety was, that he wouldn't need to worry about ammunition, only about the gun overheating. It had also let him know about the different settings.

They looked like the pistols he had seen in movies like Treasure Island. The Flintlock, except they were black and with the twisted ridges that seemed to be the hall mark of this race. There was also something peculiarly biological about the look of it, though it felt undeniably metallic in his hand.

David took two just to be sure then left, locking the door behind him. They were peculiarly light, he noted as he ran back through the corridors and out of the ship to the sand cat.

No human would be able to drive the small easily flipped vehicle as fast as he drove then. Or as recklessly. He wasn't sure why, but the thought of leaving Doctor Shaw alone in the Engineer's craft any longer than strictly necessary sent an unpleasant wave of feedback through his systems, as though it conflicted with other aspects of his programming.

He slowed as he neared the life raft, spending the extra time granted by that decrease in speed to observe the craft for any signs of movement. He pulled over close by, still exorcising caution, and climbed out of the sand cat. One of the guns in his left hand in case he was met with hostility, David carefully and as silently as he could while maintaining a reasonable speed made his way to the not quite wreckage of the life raft.

Books and broken glass were scattered across the floor, the room seeming much smaller than it had when the hologram had been functional even though it's dimensions had remained unchanged. It didn't take him long to find body of the Engineer as well as- Oh dear.

His processing systems recoiled and crackled in protest as he tried to imagine Doctor Shaw having to surgically remove _that_ without assistance or support. He froze in place as he realised the full extent of the horror he had accidentally inflicted upon her.

The thing lay slumped on the ground, long thick and squid like limbs splayed out around the still and prone form of the Engineer. No, not quite squid like, though there was a hint of cephalopod to it. This was more like a star fish, only huge enough to dwarf the Engineer and sickly smooth with a strange resemblance to female genitalia that humans would not doubt find uncomfortable.

Both creatures appeared to be dead while neither seemed to have suffered any actual injuries. The desire to properly investigate was quashed by a stronger want to not have to use this strange weapon in a confined space, or even at all. There was something uncomfortable about the thought of taking a life in such a way that he had no desire to explore.

Glancing to the two prone forms occasionally out of some irritatingly illogical worry that they may start to move once more, David began to gather what useful supplies he could. Medical equipment, tools, a small supply of painkiller and some bandages. Not to mention food and few changes of clothing. He loaded the sand cat to capacity with these and what other useful supplies he could fit, satisfied that for the moment Doctor Shaw was safe.

He was scanning the room one final time for something vital that he may have missed when he caught site of the mirror. Broken and slanted but still fundamentally useable.

Before he even started to process why, he found that he was walking towards it. While repairing him, David had noticed Doctor Shaw's attention fixing on the broken synthetic skin around his neck in a way that it had not on the even more inhuman aspects of his design. The small facial ticks that he had seen had indicated a level of disgust or discomfort.

His reflection was something he was more than used to seeing. He was familiar with the importance of his carefully maintained human appearance. It made other humans more likely to trust him and put them at ease when confronted with his other more obvious abnormalities.

The obvious synthetic nature of his skin became apparent when he saw his reflection. It had caught above his collar and with his sensors in that area damaged he had not noticed, but now he saw he understood what had made Doctor Shaw uncomfortable.

He looked human, but just different enough to be obviously inhuman.

He took a brief moment to push the artificial skin down beneath his collar, hiding the evidence of his true origin. Once satisfied with the results and after making a note to repair the damage as best he could once there was time, he picked up the lone surviving bottle of scotch and carried it with him out to the sand cat then drove back to the Engineer's space ship at a more sedate pace so as not to damage anything.

The return drive took considerably more time to complete and the moving of the supplies he had managed to salvage took him almost two hours due to the awkward shapes and the lack of anything to assist in their removal.

Doctor Shaw had remained sleeping in the chair, her chin resting against her chest. The position looked awkward and uncomfortable and there was a frown on her face. She would occasional whimper if he made too much noise, as though it had startled her even through her sleep.

Once he had finished and had stacked the salvaged items in appropriate piles, he walked over to crouch at her side. She had been sleeping for approximately four hours and thirty seven minutes. While she needed her rest, he was certain that he needed to examine her wounds. While the blow that one of Weyland's guards had delivered aptly demonstrated how to use the butt of a riffle as an offensive weapon, he was worried that it had reopened an already fresh wound. Added to the strain she had been under and he was convinced that she would need some serious care.

Leaving her for this long was probably ill advised, but he had had little choice. At least now he had what he needed to repair her. Yet as necessary as waking her was, he wanted to let her sleep for a little longer. It made no sense and part of his programming railed against it, but some small part of this complied with his new primary directive.

At least he now had the time allow his human facade to return.

* * *

**A/N** Thank you to MissCaityGrace, megumisakura, EmpireX, smithsbabe65, CosPalp, David 8 and SheHasNoFeet for reviewing the previous chapter. I am very grateful for the feedback and glad that you all enjoyed what I'm working on.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep updating this at a rate of about once a week, though I do have a strange work schedule and I might not be able to keep to it. I'll do my best to warn people though.

As always if I've missed a typo let me know I'll sort it out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Medical Attention

"Doctor Shaw." The words drifted through to her and she felt a hand cover her own. "Doctor Shaw, I am sorry for having to wake you, but I need to check on the incision in your abdomen and any other wounds you may have." David's voice was soft as he spoke to her, gently luring her from her sleep. Waking her to the pain of simply wearing her battered and abused body.

She glanced around, wondering for a second where she was before reality sank back in. "I understand that you are in pain and that you are still frightened and prone to the fight or flight response once more affecting you, but please try to remain calm." David gave her a pleasant and small smile while once more patting her hand.

Elizabeth rubbed at her eyes, then looked back to David. Something about him was different from the last time she had seen him but her sleep addled mind was having difficulty spotting it. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked, her voice as groggy as her head.

"Approximately four hours and fifty two minutes." She nodded, her gaze sliding back around the room. There were neat piles of supplies against the wall. She frowned, trying to make sense of what was going on.

"The Engineer?"

"Dead. It appeared that he was killed by," his head tilted and his eyes flicked down to her stomach. "A cephalopod like creature. Though that was also dead when I arrived." Her hand hovered over her still throbbing wound, a flash of memory of removing the hell spawn that had taken up residence in her womb. The thrashing tentacles, the blood and the rage that the thing seemed to harbour.

"So we're safe now?" David hesitated before answering her.

"There is a high chance that we will not come under further attack, though we have no way of knowing if there is anything else that has escaped the first ship. I have taken precautions against such a danger however." She nodded, wondering what the android's idea of precaution was.

"Doctor Shaw," he said, once more patting her hand. "I need to examine your wounds." She froze, her eyes wide as the memory of the last time David had given her medical attention. She could feel her chest start to tighten. Oh dear Lord, she didn't think she could handle that cold indifference, that pitiful attempt at doing what was best for her.

He slid his hand over hers, curling his fingers around her own. "Doctor Shaw, I understand your reservations but I assure you I have your best interests at heart. You repaired me, allow me to do the same for you." His stare was earnest, unwavering. Unnerving. When he looked her in the eye was when she was most convinced that she was speaking to a person and not a machine. But after all the things he had said and done she remained to be convinced that it was a good person. "Please." His hand gently squeezed hers and her eyes flicked down.

Pale but not pallid. Long fingers and a strong grip. It was strange knowing that he could most likely break her fingers with ease and yet he was being so gentle with her. Had held her while she cried, warned her of danger and now. Now he was trying to heal her.

She couldn't respond with words. All she could do was give him a nod. His lips quirked into a quasi reassuring smile and he released her hand to go to the supplies. He picked up what looked like a first aid kit and a few rolls of bandages in one hand and . . . was that? It was. He picked up a bottle of whisky with the other. He made his way back to her side with swift and slightly bobbing strides.

He hesitated before setting down the medical supplies and the whisky. "You'll need to take off your exo-suit Doctor Shaw." Her hand hovered over her aching stomach before he gripped the arms of the chair and tried to pull herself up to her feet. Her arms shook with strain and she doubted the strength in her legs. But then David's arms were around her again. Guiding and supporting her. She looked away in shame as she leaned on him and reached up with a trembling hand to the zip of her suit.

"Do you require anymore assistance?" She glanced up to him, her face feeling hot and sure she was blushing.

"I think I can manage a zip David, but thank you anyway." This would be so much easier if she could stop thinking of him as a man, but the human masquerade was so close to real that she couldn't help but be embarrassed as she pulled the zip down. He remained stoic as he held her on her feet, watching her with polite impassiveness. As much as she knew he had seen it before she still felt ashamed as her zip reached her navel.

Without asking and without warning, David reached up and slid the suit off of her shoulder while holding her up with one strong but slender arm around her waist. She looked at him with wide and startled eyes but he didn't seem to notice. All she could do was simply follow his lead and pull her arm out of the suit, his hand sliding over her skin as she did. He swapped his grip on her to assist her with removing the other arm.

She couldn't tell if he was genuinely oblivious to how intimate this act was or if he was simply pretending to be an unthinking automaton, serenely smiling at her in an effort to make her less uncomfortable. If he was simply pretending, it wasn't working. The not knowing was making it even worse.

His gaze was unwavering yet sharp as she took hold of his shoulders to steady herself. "Did you sustain any other injuries?" he asked, not quite concern in his voice as he carefully pulled down her suit.

"I don't think so. A few bruises and scrapes but nothing serious. Though I was taking a lot of pain killers." David slowly lowered himself to his knees in front of her, keeping his eyes on hers and a pleasant smile on his face. Her grip on his shoulders tightened to the point where she was sure it would have been painful to a human. The memory of Charlie kneeing in front of her like that, carefully undressing her.

He pulled her suit away with small delicate movements. She winced when it pulled on her wound and tore away dried blood but managed to stop herself from crying out. As embarrassing as it was to be in this position she couldn't tell him to stop. That she could undress herself. As distant as this was from real human contact she didn't want to force it away. Awkward, painful and disinterested as his touch was as he slid the suit down her legs, at least was a touch.

Avoiding looking at him, Elizabeth stepped out of the suit. The floor felt metallic and cold beneath her feet, though David's hands on her hips felt warm. Warmer than she had thought he would. The palms of his hands felt rough, as though they were calloused and just different enough from skin to be noticeable though she couldn't put her finger on the difference. If it was texture, temperature or even its firmness she couldn't tell.

He picked up the bottle of whisky while staying on his knees and keeping one hand on her hip. He offered it to her with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid this was the closest thing to an anaesthetic I was able to find." She took it from him and eyed the label before sighing and rolling her eyes.

"Vickers has terrible taste." David's smile turned to suppressed amusement.

"I am sure that had she survived she would argue the point with you," he replied, his tone still perfectly measured but his smile betraying something more than mere robotics as he steadied her once more with both hands holding her tightly.

"Who would you trust when it came to whisky?" she asked, reluctantly unscrewing the bottle. "An American who's grown up thinking bourbon is acceptable, or an actual Scott?" He shook his head while examining her wound. She didn't want to look at it, she had made a point of not looking at it. Instead she took a swing from the bottle.

Her nose wrinkled at the harsh taste and the burn it inflicted. If she had bought this crap in a bar she would have demanded a refund. It hit her empty stomach hard, but if the intention was to get her drunk so she wouldn't notice the pain as much then not eating anything would certainly speed up that process.

"I would be more inclined to trust the opinion of a Scott," he replied, not looking to her face. "Two of the staples have come loose, one of them doing considerable damage in doing so. There is also a large amount of bruising most likely caused by the blow to the stomach you received." She took another swing from the bottle and coughed. "All I can do for the moment is sterilise the wound and stitch it closed. There may be some sort of medipod on the ship somewhere that would be of more assistance."

"How are you going to sterilise the wound?" she asked, her legs feeling unsteady, though whether that was because of the alcohol or her blood loss she had no idea.

"There is an alcohol rub in the first aid kit and it that is not sufficient then, well, from what you've said you won't miss the whisky." She paused mid swig, suddenly very self conscious. She swallowed with some difficulty and lowered the bottle fairly slowly. "Or perhaps you would. Either way I will not be able to tend to your wounds while you are still standing." Before she could even start to lower herself to the ground in response David had hooked his arm around her knees again and slid his other around to encircle her waist.

It was a simple but strangely powerful and yet gentle gesture when he easily lifted her while still on his knees. Her arm went around his neck as he slowly settled her on the floor. It was then she realised what he had changed. Strange how sleepiness would hide it from her but impending drunkenness would reveal it.

He had hidden the fringe of synthetic skin that marked him as not being a man. Was it vanity? Was it to put her at ease or was it simply because it was getting in the way?

She was sure the whisky shouldn't have been affecting her this quickly, but the way he was touching her, was looking at her, had made goose bumps rise on her skin. It was probably the grief. The stress and the adrenalin. But right now there was nothing she wanted more than to be close to this strange artificial being. One more swig from the bottle before setting it aside but within reach. She allowed him to lay her down, the edges of her senses fraying in an altogether more pleasant way. It made him seem somehow more real, less perfect.

He took his hands away from her as she lay on the floor, cold and aching, and reached for the first aid kit. She still didn't dare look at the mess that her abdomen had become. He opened the silver box, making sure it was turned away from her so she couldn't see what he was doing.

"I am sorry about this Doctor Shaw, but this will likely sting quite a bit." She nodded and closed her eyes, not wanting to see him anymore. The strange wants and desires that were waking within her too much for her pained and alcohol hazed mind to properly process.

"David," she said, her voice quiet and meek as she could hear his rummaging around in the first aid kit.

"Yes Doctor Shaw?" he replied evenly, lightly stroking the undamaged skin above her wound. The touch was a strange mix of clinical and intimate, as though he was trying to comfort her but hadn't yet learnt the art of casual physical contact. She let out a slow and shaky breath, trying to ignore the urge to reach out to him, to make him touch her more so that she could feel. Just feel something other than pain and ach and desperation.

"Please, can you stop calling me that?"

"What would you prefer?" he asked, starting to wipe at the area around her wound with what felt like damp cotton wool. Cleaning her up most likely.

"I don't know. Something less formal. It just doesn't seem right you calling me Doctor all the time." She hissed in pain, her back arcing and her teeth clenching as the disinfectant finally bit into her wound. It burned like an insect bite and fire at the same time despite David's gentle administrations. By the third stroke she had managed to force herself to relax.

"All most done with the disinfectant Elizabeth. I just need to apply a little more in a higher concentration, then I can remove the faulty staples and move onto stitching you up." She nodded, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. She wasn't sure the whisky had done much to dull the pain, but she was certainly glad she wasn't going through this stone cold sober. Heaven knew how much a shot of vodka would have helped before going into that medipod in the first place.

A whimper escaped her when he splashed on the disinfectant, but she refused to bow to this new pain. David's warm hand settled on her skin once again, laying just beneath her breasts over her ribs. It was inappropriate, it was uninvited, but by her Lord and all she held holly it was the best distraction he could have possibly come up with whether intentional or not. Her shaky breathing slowed and steadied a little as she had this new and all too welcome invasion of her personal space to focus on.

"Brace yourself," he warned, keeping his hand in place but pressing down a little more strongly as though to hold her in place. She focused on his fingers, on how they were slightly spread out with no more than a centimetre apart at the tip. She kept her mind on the warmth radiating from him, on the precise length of each digit until she was convinced that she could draw the outline perfectly without a guide.

That was when he slipped out the first staple. Another whimper, though the pain wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. Just another notch in her beaten and battered body. Just another little chip out of her.

David rubbed at her skin a little, a pitiful attempt at comfort, his fingertips moving in small circles. Something new to watch, to burn into her memory. She was sure she'd be able to feel that hand, its ghost burned into her skin, until the day she died.

She couldn't hold back the cry of agony with the second staple. She didn't think, she didn't try and analyse why it hurt more. All she could do was whimper and focus on her one comfort. The hand, with its warmth and reliability and it's almost human quality.

She should have drank more whisky regardless of how much it would have thinned her blood.

She mourned the hand when it left her skin and perhaps it showed because David quietly said "I'm just threading the needle now. The stitches should be relatively painless." She didn't realise she was crying until David tried to wipe away her tears and succeeded only in spreading them across her cheek. Another unpractised gesture, well meaning but not quite human. Not quite right.

He had been telling the truth about the stitches. All she felt was an uncomfortable pull and tug. The only pain came from forcing her inflamed and bruised flesh back together. She barely even felt the needle. But she felt his hands, holding her down, ensuring his accuracy.

It didn't take him long and he tied off the medical thread as gently as he could. Her breath still shaky, she allowed her eyes to open again. David had already walked over to the rest of the supplies, leaving her alone on the floor. She pushed herself up a little and finally summoned the courage to look down at her wound. Perfectly neat stitches stretched between the staple furthest on her right to the one in the very centre of the incision. They look flawless, each stitch exactly the same size and exactly the same distance apart from each other. They looked somehow more sturdy and safer than the staples as well.

Without her even realising that David had returned to her side, he draped a thick pale blue bathrobe over her shoulders. "You should put this on," he said gently, helping her into it without giving her a choice. She allowed him to wrap it around her without protest, her mind still imagining that warm hand on her rib cage.

"Thank you," she said quietly as he pressed a bottle of water into her hand.

"You're welcome Elizabeth." Perhaps she was still a little drunk because she didn't see the harm in leaning against him for a little while. He allowed it but didn't do anything to encourage further contact. She almost hated him for it, but God forgive her, she needed him. With shaky hands she opened the bottle and took a small sip. It didn't mingle well with the cheap whisky, waking up the disappointing taste of the drink. "I'll get something high in protean and iron to aid with your healing process for you eat. You should sleep for an hour or two more after that so that you don't pull on the stitches too soon." She nodded, her eyes fixing on the floor and his words drifting through to her as if from a different time. Sleep seemed like a good idea, but there was something she was worried about. A gnawing fear that wouldn't leave her alone.

"David, will you stay with me while I sleep?" she asked, feeling like a little girl asking her father to make the nightmares go away. "Please."

* * *

**A/N **Thank you to smithsbabe65, EmpireX, megumisakura, David 8 and MaddAlice for reviewing the previous chapter. I appreciated it quite a lot. I was worried that I hadn't got David down very well as a POV character. Next chapter is one from his POV as well.

Apparently I'm quite into this. I usually don't write at this pace.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Curiosity

Elizabeth looked up to him with wide pleading eyes. The sight of her looking up to him like that while leaning against his shoulder for support kindled an unpleasant reaction in his processors. He allowed a small reassuring smile. He didn't understand what she was afraid of, but he knew that everything in his programming cried out for him to grant her peculiar request.

"Of course, Elizabeth," he replied, the name still unfamiliar to his vocal processors. She sighed in relief, her gaze dropping back to the ground as she took another small drink. He knew he was taking liberties while she was injured and unable to truly protest, but he still felt his actions necessary.

He hooked his hand under her knees again and picked her up with ease. She blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything to protest against his actions. When he was satisfied that she was sufficiently repaired he would stop doing such things. For now however he carried her back to the pilots' chair and set her down gently.

She quietly thanked him when he handed her the ration bar and ate without complaint while he set up a bed roll for her. Her head was nodding after yet another harsh exposure to adrenalin, her hand occasionally rising up to touch herself where his hand had pressed to calm her and hold her down.

He replayed her reaction to his touch as he watched her. Not simply the touch to her stomach, but when he had been removing her exosuit, attempting to comfort her and steadying her on her feet. Dilated pupils, slight increase in heart rate, not to mention she had been blushing from start to finish and alternating between not quite staring at him and avoiding eye contact.

It was a strange but understandable reaction. Grief and surviving such a dangerous situation often had humans looking for comfort in intimate physical contact. It was slightly worrying that she seemed to have been considering seeking it with him, yet at the same time his circuitry rippled with positive feedback at the idea. Logically he knew it would lead to unnecessary long term complications and only short term benefits.

But it would help her.

Then the video file of him contaminating Doctor Holloway's drink began to replay in the bottom right corner of his vision. A wave of negative feedback crashed through his circuitry so powerfully that he couldn't stop himself flinching. His spasming hand dropped the first aid kit he had been returning to its rightful place. It hit the floor with an echoing clang.

He heard Elizabeth gasp and he looked over his shoulder to her. "Are you alright David?" she asked, dark eyes wide and startled. He didn't want to look her in the eye. He didn't have the right. Not after what he had done.

He met her gaze and forced a small smile. "Quite alright, thank you. It seems that the damage was more extensive than I had first thought. It's interfering with my regular systems." She gave a small nod before settling back down into the chair.

"If you need any more repairs just let me know. I'd be happy to help."

Looking down to his hands, David flexed his fingers, unsure of their compliance for the first time since his activation. Had his programmers worded his tertiary directive the way they had as some sort of sick joke? Or was it a simple error? He found it difficult to believe that they would not have seen the potential for complications such as this. Such ambiguous wording would not allow for him to operate at peak efficiency. Especially with the added complication that came from the clashing that had occurred due to Mister Weyland's orders.

He didn't need to pick her up when she had finished her sparse meal, only to steady her with a hand on her arm. Her steps were small and her dark eyes half closed. He placed a hand on her hip just to be sure she didn't fall. She glanced up to him, too tired to even properly open her eyes, and offered a weak smile.

Her hand flicked to her stomach as she settled on the floor and she gave a wince. "Are you aright Elizabeth?" She nodded, shying away from meeting his eyes and her cheeks red once again. Her eyes flicked around the dark room as though searching for some unseen assailant before she let him guide her down.

She settled onto her side, her legs pulled up and one hand on the wound on her abdomen. David reached for the closest thing to a blanket that he had found in the wreckage. Her eyes drooped closed as he lay it over her, noting that the temperature in the room was below optimal for human comfort.

He made to stand, sure that she would be asleep within moments.

Her hand shot out of the blanket and snatched his wrist faster than he had thought possible for a human, but then Elizabeth had been full of surprises from the start. Her eyes were wide, afraid when he looked to her face.

"You said," she began, but turned her eyes away, her grip on him slackening slightly. He identified the emotion as shame, or perhaps embarrassment. Reading human emotion by facial expression was so difficult, each person wearing a different mask. Not to mention how good at faking different emotions some humans could be. She bit her lip, her eyes took on that wet sheen that always predicted tears.

"I'll be here," he replied, lowing himself to the floor beside her. "I won't leave you." She gave a shaky sigh of relief and let go of his wrist, settling down to go back to sleep.

"Thank you," she said quietly, her eyes slipping closed. He sat the watching her, his processors humming pleasantly at his compliance with his new primary directive. Her breathing rate was still too high for her to be sleep, so he set about analysing her appearance.

Her not quite red hair was sweat soaked and dried blood lightly flecked the little of her pale skin that he could see. There was something pleasantly girlish about her face that he couldn't quite pin down that only seemed to be present when she was at peace. A structural analysis of her facial features revealed a level of symmetry that he knew to be appealing. Her jaw line was rounded and feminine. From a purely mathematical stance she would be classed as an attractive woman.

She reminded him of Ginger Rogers.

They had the same slender build and round features, though the nose was different. While he had not seen Elizabeth move with the same grace as the dancer, she held the same sort of passion. The mark of a woman that was doing something she loved and had no intention of stopping until death claimed her.

It took a surprisingly long length of time for her to fall asleep again and he spent all of that time simply watching her. The minute expressions that flickered across her face, letting him know that her mind was still more than active. This was something he was not used to seeing. He had watched her sleep on board the Prometheus, but he had never taken the time to watch the process of getting there.

Books and movies always showed sleep as something that came quickly and easily or as something that was hard won with much tossing and turning. They never mentioned the middle ground that he watched now. The sleep that came slowly but not with effort. With simple patience and closed eyes.

Her hand reached out and brushed against his fingers. She felt cold in comparison to his own body temperature, but then most people did. The read out he gained from the contact assured him that she was a normal temperature and in no danger of ailments that could be brought about by staying too long somewhere that was too cold.

Not long after that, the data he could gather by watching her led him to the assumption that she was finally sleeping. Her body had slumped a little and her breathing slowed down though her eyes still flittered about beneath her eye lids. David remained by her side for a few minutes more to ensure that she was deep enough asleep that he would not inadvertently wake her before he rose to his feet.

She gave a small sleepy whimper and pulled her hand back beneath the blanket, curling up into a tighter ball. A small jolt of feedback crackled through him at the sight, but what he was doing was for her.

He made his way over to the control panel and activated it as quietly as he could. Elizabeth groaned and rolled over but didn't rouse as the green light of a schematic of the ship lit up the air above the control set, filling the room. It didn't take him long to find something that resembled a roman bath house, nestled in the heart of the ship. He would take her there when she woke, she would no doubt be grateful for the chance to remove the residue of her ordeal from her skin.

The ship was huge and labyrinthine. Its corridors twisted and turned. With rooms spouting off from them where it was simply counter intuitive. Yet it seemed to be a highly efficient method of building into the horse shoe shape. If he was going to be of any real help when it came to Elizabeth finding her answers he had best start now. His understanding of the alien language was rudimentary but growing and examining this schematic would not only be useful in expanding his vocabulary but a good knowledge of which doors to leave locked and what was behind those that were safe would likely be of great help.

There were hundreds of rooms in this ship. Barracks, armouries, training rooms. Gardens? That was unexpected. Perhaps they were for food production. It would be interesting to study the plant life of the Engineers home planet and it could possibly make rationing a non issue. A mess hall at each end of the ship, the engine room, store houses that he assumed held more of those parasite containers and a total of thirty eight laboratories.

He blinked in confusion. Was that laboratories or did it mean chapels? He wasn't sure. It couldn't be, there were two rooms that seemed to be labelled as temples. That had surprised him enough. He had strongly doubted that such an advanced species would be so strongly religious. It was one of the things that had surprised him most about Elizabeth. Christianity was not something that was particularly common among scientists and her Engineers seemed to be considerably more spiritual than their creations.

Further investigation would be necessary, but he wasn't programmed sophisticatedly enough to understand the implications of such things, though from his understanding Elizabeth would be able to properly understand the data he could gather from those places. While he outstripped humans in almost every way, creative interpretation was mostly beyond him.

But he was learning.

* * *

**A/N** Thank you to Grace, char1493, EmpireX, I-Am-Silence, David 8, MaddAlice, Shipperwolf, Guest and megumisakura for reviewing the previous chapter.

I'm pretty nervous about this one. I've got as good as I can but I'm too involved to know if it's worked properly. Any comments about David's POV would be really useful so I know what to think about next time.

Thanks again.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Recovery Period

A sleepy smile settled onto her lips as Elizabeth's eyes met David's legs. She wasn't alone. He had stayed with her. Not beside her as he had been when she had drifted off to sleep, but he was still close. She couldn't reach out and touch him, but she could see him, she could get up and walk over to him. Or at least se could if her body wasn't still so heavy with sleep. For now she was content simply to watch.

The room was bathed in a gentle green light and a wire frame model of what might have been the ship floated in the air before the android. Glyphs and symbols glittered as he manipulated the model with easy sweeping hand gestures that looked so effortlessly precise. His back was to her, his posture proud and his body language strangely lilting. Tall and slender with lithe limbs.

He manoeuvred the ship some more and highlighted what she assumed was a room from the glittering symbols that she was starting to recognise as the Engineer's language. He stood facing away from her at an angle so she could see the smallest part of his face. His hand withdrew from the model and he tapped his chin, tilting his head to the left and leaning slightly as he did. It was such a human gesture that she could almost forget that he was an android.

She covered her mouth as she let out a yawn. David's head snapped around and he stared at her with wide eyes before a frown touched his features. "I apologise, I didn't mean to wake you." He sounded almost panicked as she pushed herself up, wincing at the aching tug on her incision.

"It's alright," she replied, smiling slightly. "You didn't." A smile twitched onto his face in response. "What are you looking at?"

"A schematic of this ship," he replied, striding over to her. He held out his hand to her. "I've noted what appear to be areas of interest that are the most likely to be safe, including two temples and a bath house." Blushing, she took hold of his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet. She hadn't had the chance to even take in what state she had gotten herself into, but leave it to him to suggest she have a bath.

"Now you mention it, I could probably do with getting cleaned up." Then the rest of what he had said sank in and she frowned. "Temples? On a space ship?" His smile widened and he guided her over to the console with a hand on the small of her back.

"Yes, and a number of rooms that may be chapels or laboratories but I'm having difficulty translating that particular word." A gesture with his free hand and the two temples flashed a brighter green with what she assumed were words around them. They separated the ship into perfect thirds and were huge compared to the rooms around them.

"What do those symbols mean?" she asked, her eyes wide with wonder at what was before her. Yet there was something that wouldn't let her forget the placement of his hand. Something that highlighted the small point of contact on her back.

"The ones on the left say "Temple to Amshalt, our Lady of Night," and on the right "Temple to Xenaph, our Lady of Day". None of the possible chapels are labelled with the names of deities however."

"They might be to ancestors or historical figures. I won't know until I've had a chance to look around. Or they could be labs, like you said. The placement of the temples are interesting though. It might just be convenient or it could be significant." She glanced up to David, grinning, only to see him smiling down at her with more than just his usual serenity. Her blush returned and she glanced away. "Though you're right, I should probably get cleaned up first."

David went back to his manipulation of the model. "The bath house isn't too far from here. Would you like me to show you the way?" She nodded as his hand moved up to lay on her shoulder. There was a strange ease to the gesture. It was still out of place, still strange and more intimate than he had earned. But he was learning and doing so quickly.

"Please," she said with a small smile. He gestured towards the door again, lightly pushing her forwards. She followed his lead, one hand on her aching stomach. Her body felt weak but not as bad as before David had given her medical attention. It hurt to turn or stretch and now the painkillers and adrenalin were practically a distant memory she couldn't believe what she had been able to do. It felt as though her insides where falling out and she pressed against her wound a little more firmly. Strangely it worked. While the relief was small, it was there.

"I'm afraid I couldn't find any hygiene products on my first trip to the crash site, but considering your DNA analysis of these Engineers there is most likely something that you can use on board this ship. If not I am certain that I could create something." A blush spread across her face, something that was becoming more and more common in his company.

"Thank you David," she replied, glancing away as he led her through the ship. Then she frowned as something strange occurred to her. "Why are you doing this?" David took his hand from her shoulder and held his wrist behind his back while looking at her with a tilted head.

"Doing what, Elizabeth?"

"Looking after me like this," she replied, wrapping her arms around herself. "You don't have to."

"I am sorry if you don't approve of my fussing over you," he said lightly, with a smile that might have been sad. "But it's in my programming. Not only that, you have just been through an unpleasant ordeal that included a major operation. I'm afraid you'll simply have to tolerate my attentions over the next four to six weeks as you recover from that." Her blush deepened and a sense of shame wormed its way into her gut.

"I didn't mean- I just-" His smile turned amused and his hand found the small of her back again.

"That's quite alright. Besides, it's not the only reason I'm looking after you."

"Oh?"

"You are pleasant and interesting company and I rather like you," he replied. His tone and expression light, as though he was talking about a film he had seen or a picture he had come across.

She had no idea what the polite or correct response to a statement like that would be. So she smiled up at him and said, "I quite like you too," hoping that it wouldn't come across as rude. He seemed to perk up a little at her words, his smile deepening and seeming somehow more real. It touched his eyes the way only a true smile could.

It was creepy.

While on the Prometheus she had never sat and thought about exactly what it meant to travel with an android. Now however with David as her only company it was hard not to think about it. There were just so many little things about him that were just not _quite_ human. Body language, the way he spoke, expressions. All of them were so close to human that sometimes she almost thought he was a real living person. But other times her mind just wouldn't let it go. Wouldn't stop noticing the serene smile, the bird like mannerisms.

And now the inappropriate and not quite clinical physical contact.

By the time they reached the door to the bath house Elizabeth's mind was working overtime on what she was going to do. She watched carefully as David's fingers danced over the control panel, but her head was practically spinning as everything that had happened to her ran on repeat through her mind.

He held his arm out to stop her from going in and stepped in front of her. This was new. He hadn't been protective on Prometheus. He had saved her life, but everything he had done before had been reactionary.

He stepped into the room and Elizabeth hovered in the doorway, her eyes on him. She wasn't sure why she was following his lead on this. She wasn't sure why she trusted him. Perhaps she was just too tired and too beaten down to even think this through.

Apparently satisfied, he turned and held his hand out to her. One hand lightly pressing her wound, she padded over to him, taking hold of his hand and standing close to his side.

The room was huge and black like everything she had seen on this ship. There was a pool that filled the centre of the room, circular and huge with four steps to ease entrance to water that wasn't there. The figures of humanoid women protruded from the walls, one in each corner. Their bald heads nearly touching the ceiling and their hands covering their eyes with sombre expressions, their hips disappearing into the metal that made the room. They had strong figures, powerfully feminine with large breasts and a narrow waist but with well defined muscles.

There was something oddly ominous about this place. Something that made her want to stay close to David. He seemed to be mostly ignoring her while still glancing around the room. His free hand rose up to allow a finger to tap thoughtfully on his chin. Then he straightened up and a smile sprung to his face as he began to stride across the room, taking Elizabeth with him.

He seemed to have forgotten that she had hold of his hand as he walked around the edge of the empty pool over to a panel beneath one of the statues that Elizabeth hadn't noticed. Her eyes turned upwards to the imposing figure above as David knelt down to examine the controls. It felt like standing at the feet of a goddess. She had the body of a superhero only seeing it made of metal made the ridiculous proportions somehow believable, especially when she considered the toned stomach and the powerfully built arms.

David hummed a soft tune that drifted around the room, amplified by the acoustics. It was a pleasant and oddly old tune, and she was sure she had heard it before somewhere. Perhaps a movie? Or perhaps from David himself.

"Ah, there we go," he said as a trickling sound met her ears. David rose to his feet, smiling at her then glanced to the pool. She followed his lead and saw water gently pouring from the steps. "The water apparently already has a mild detergent in it, the chemical composition is similar to the alkyl sulphates found in most soap, among other things. It should be entirely safe."

"Should be?" she asked, eyeing the water suspiciously.

"Is," he corrected. "Would you like me to wait outside for you or should I start to explore the possible laboratories?" A sudden twinge of doubt and suspicion struck her.

"Could you wait for me please? I'd like to see them for myself." He smiled and gave a gesture that was somewhere between a nod and a bow before finally releasing her hand and walking out of the room without a glance back.

The door shut behind him and her eyes turned to her hand. Her skin felt oddly cold again after his touch had left her and she began to wonder if David knew what he was doing.

Sighing and shaking her head, Elizabeth slid the bath robe from her shoulders and let it drop to the ground then slowly removed her underwear. The pool had filled by the time she had undressed and she walked over to examine it. The water had a peculiar sheen to it and she wasn't sure if that was because of the soap in it or the colour of the pool itself.

Biting her lip, she stared at the water, her toes gripping the edge. Was it safe? David had said it was, but how had he gotten that information? She knew he had taught himself to speak the language of the Engineers. That he seemed to be easily picking up how to work their technology. But she could she trust him?

What was she even thinking? The only think he had done to her that was close to dishonest was not return her cross the first moment he had seen her. He had been the only person in that room to go to her assistance however. Giving her something to return her modesty. He had saved her life in the silica storm. And now he was looking after her. Would he have bothered to stitch her up, to stay with her, if he was just going to let her die now? It was ridiculous.

She stepped into the water. The pool had been scaled up to fit the Engineers, each step twice the size of one she would expect anywhere else. The water was comfortably warm and reached about half way up her calf with the first step. Placing her trust in David she walked slowly into the pool. In the centre the water almost reached her shoulders and she began to gently rub at the dried blood and dirt that coated her skin. It came off easily, dissolving into the pleasantly warm water. A thin lather of bubbles surrounded her as she washed, but they were short lived.

Elizabeth couldn't stop herself from glancing nervously around the room. The statues were somewhat unnervingly huge, and she felt small and insignificant in their presence. She wondered if they were meant to be deities of some sort or if they were just there for grandiose decoration like the nudes that filled Victorian opera halls. Either way they seemed like a celebration of power and the female form.

Turning her eyes away from them, she continued to rub at her exposed body, feeling ashamed of her small and skinny frame. So fragile and boyish compared to these monuments to strength and femininity. She was suddenly glad that they were all covering their eyes. If humans had been created in their image, then she felt she had been made from the scraps left over. Runt of the litter and a disappointment to her unusual parentage.

Holding her breath, she bent her knees and sank beneath the water's surface. She ran her fingers through her hair, hoping that would be enough to clean it of the sweat and blood that it had accumulated. She stayed underwater until her lungs began to burn, the events of the last few days playing on loop in her mind. The running. The Prometheus crashing into the Engineer's ship. Charlie on fire. David's head being torn from his body.

Her chest tightened, but she kept herself under the water's surface.

Running for her life to Vicker's life raft, her oxygen running low. The scalpel biting into her skin, through her muscle tissue. The clamps delving into her stomach and dragging that writhing lashing _thing_ from her womb.

She burst out of the water, gasping for breath, tears streaming down her face as the damn burst. Each gasp and silent sob tore at her stitched up wound and she pressed a hand over it to try and dull the pain. Her other arm wrapped around herself, her hand gripping her shoulder, nails digging in. Her breath came in short sharp gasps, her chest aching and her knees weakening as the waking nightmare of this planet caught up to her, ripping down her defences.

She stumbled over to the steps, sitting down and holding herself as she wept in the presence of her uncaring and ashamed God.

* * *

**A/N** Thank you to David 8, Elorrra8787, Mic O'Mally, Guest, DaiKuro-chan, EmpireX, SumSum, char1493, MaddAlice and megumisakura for reviewing the previous chapter. I'm pretty blown away by the response to be honest. I wasn't expecting many reviews after the mess up that happened with the update, so this is pretty overwhelming. Glad to know I'm not screwing up with David's POV though.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks again for the reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Priorities

The door opposite the one to the bath house was a very obvious entrance. The control panel was very obvious as well. At shoulder height and near identical to every other control panel that David had seen on the ship. It would be incredibly easy to open. He couldn't help but run through the possible gestures and pushes that would unlock the room beyond.

Unsure of why, he took a couple of steps towards the door. Like every other door on the ship it was tall and arced. His height multiplied by one point eight seven. The same word that he had been having difficulty translating was inscribed above the door, woven in with the pipe and wire work.

What did it mean? He knew that the odds were leaning towards laboratories. It certainly made more sense than having chapels as well as temples. He flexed his fingers, while looking at the control panel. Both negative and positive feedback rippled mildly over his processors as he took another step closer to the door.

He was programmed to learn, to explore and gather information. But he had told Elizabeth that he would wait for her. He glanced back to the door to the bath house. She had been in there for forty eight minutes. He had read books that mentioned women like long baths, but this was verging on the ridiculous.

He drummed his fingers against his leg, wondering if something had happened to her. He had been certain that her drive to collect knowledge and find answers would have her washing quickly. Perhaps she had slipped.

His hand froze and he turned to stare at the door separating him from Elizabeth at the thought. Should he check on her? The thickness of the wall didn't allow him to hear her easily. He knew that the vast majority of women highly valued their privacy and didn't like it when people saw their body without permission. Elizabeth certainly hadn't been happy when she had woken to her medical examination, though she seemed to have gotten used to him seeing her in her underwear.

It was possible that she was simply taking her time due to her injuries or that she wanted to be alone. But the idea that she had slipped and harmed herself wouldn't stop flickering across his processors. He stood in the middle of the corridor, glancing from door to door in indecision as he ran through the possibilities that he might face.

When he had just decided that she really must have fallen over and rendered herself unconscious he heard a bang on the door, followed by the muffled voice of Elizabeth.

"David, I can't open the door." That would certainly explain why she had taken seventy three minutes if she had been trying to open the door without assistance. He moved quickly to let her out, making a note to teach her how to open this door on her own so he wouldn't need to stand watch over her again.

The door slid open to reveal Elizabeth wrapped in the blue bathrobe, her wet hair looked darker and she had swept it back out of her face. She seemed somehow paler, diminished by her comparatively short absence. Her eyes looked blood shot and the skin around them red, a sign that she had been crying. That explained what had taken her so long.

A ripple of negative feedback touched his circuitry as he realised that no one had been there to comfort her. "Are you alright Elizabeth?" he asked, taking a small step towards her.

"I'm fine David, thank you," she replied with a weak smile and a slight tremble to her voice.

"You're sure?" She nodded, forcing her smile to widen a little, but even the most mediocre actress he had seen in the movies he had watched on board Prometheus could make a better imitation. He decided not to push the issue, seeing little to gain on either side from his prying.

"Well, shall we see if the rooms giving you trouble are chapels or labs?"

"Of course," he replied brightly. She moved close to him and leaned into his touch when he placed his hand on the small of her back again so that he could judge if she needed physical support. He guided her over to the door saying, "This is the closest one if you would like to begin here." She nodded, not quite as enthusiastic as he had hoped. She leaned against his shoulder, seeming to be seeking further physical.

A quick scan of his memory files led him to believe that he should hug her but he doubted that such contact would be welcome, especially if she was being evasive about having cried. Or perhaps such physical contact would be welcomed. He had had little chance to actually learn about things like affection and when it was appropriate by watching the Weyland family. Dysfunction barely came close to describing them.

He rapidly entered the code for opening the door, perhaps too rapidly from the look on her face. The fake smile she wore had become a little more genuine and a little more wry.

"Been getting impatient?" she asked, soundly slightly amused.

"Perhaps a little," he replied as the door slid open. Her smile widened slightly once again and she shook her head.

"Sorry I took so long."

"That's quite alright," he replied, stepping in front of her once again, just be safe. The room was small compared to the others on the ship, but it was clearly built to be used by beings approximately three feet taller than the average human. Work benches and strange equipment neatly filled the room as well as glass domes occupied by peculiar creatures floating in some sort of viscous liquid that looked to be dead.

One of the preserved creatures looked similar to the large cephalopod like animal that he had seen on the life raft. Negative feedback crackled over his circuitry as he looked around. It was definitely a laboratory but there were some oddities. His attention kept flicking back to that single reminder of what he had inadvertently done to Elizabeth. Why he wasn't sure, but the things presence was reducing his operating capacity.

"It seems to be safe," he said, holding his hand out to her again in a bid to keep her close just in case. Even considering his minimal repairs he would have no problem with picking her up and running should he need to. There was no hesitation this time. She strode forward and grabbed his hand almost enthusiastically, but her eyes were looking right past him.

Elizabeth didn't stop at his side, instead she carried on walking, pulling him toward whatever had caught her interest. He didn't resist or ask about her actions, it was enough to simply see her show an interest. The change in her was almost instant. Her posture straighter, a small smile on her face and her eyes wide with fascination and perhaps even a little joy. She didn't seem to have even noticed the floating specimen or lab equipment. She had eyes for only the wall she was dragging him towards.

His sensors hadn't even thought it would be relevant. There was no console or equipment or storage. It was just a bare wall with some decoration on it. Yet it had Elizabeth transfixed.

"It's both," she said, her voice a husky whisper.

"What do you mean?" he asked her, examining the wall more closely but seeing little of relevance. Just an engraving of a strange woman.

"The word you've been having trouble with. You can't make out if it means lab or chapel because it means a mix of the two." He frowned and tried to find what had brought her to that conclusion. The woman was bizarrely insectile and yet skeletal. Carved into black metal but some sort of silver alloy to add detail. It held none of the technical brilliance or sheer enormity of the star map, though he admitted internally that it must have taken skill to produce.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" he asked, not seeing the evidence.

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, sheepishly. He shook his head then looked back to the engraving to try and see what he had missed that she could so easily see.

"Look here," she said, gesturing to the arms. "The positioning is very similar to how the ancient Egyptians portrayed their Gods. The side on head, elongated like one of their head dresses. Though the human mouth on something like this is a bit, well, strange. And the lack of eyes, I wonder if it's symbolic somehow. The silver on the teeth and claws might be as well.

"Anyway," she interrupted herself as though afraid of rambling. David didn't mind. Here was the Ginger Rodgers fire that she usually held so muted. The passion for what she did. "The room is set up so all wandering attention is drawn to her, and so she's the first thing that you see when you enter the room." David hadn't even noticed it fully until Elizabeth had dragged him over to it. "I wonder if there's a name anywhere on it. I can't see anything that looks like their writing, can't you?"

He quickly scanned the image and found nothing that could be interpreted as language. "I'm afraid not," he replied reluctantly, not wanting to disappoint her. The response he gained was surprising to say the least.

"Oh well, worth asking. It's not often people put name stickers on their gods anyway. They tend to just assume that people will know who they are." His frown deepened. Just when he thought he was starting to understand her . . .

"Is that not frustrating to you?" She smiled brightly at him, her expression an odd contrast to the redness of her eyes.

"Not at all." She turned back to look up to the engraving. "It's the puzzles like this that make it fun." Doctor Elizabeth Shaw was most certainly a strange woman.

"I'll take a look at the console, see if I can find out more about what they were researching in this place." She nodded and let go of his hand to take another step toward her object of fascination, her eyes darting to things that he either could not note or could not see the relevance of, their pupils heavily dilated.

Confused about where she was gathering her data from, David walked over to the console. He activated it with ease, glancing to Elizabeth every now and again. Just to make sure she was safe and to further analyse her behaviour. She seemed wary of touching the engraving for some reason as he scanned through the files he found. A tap on one that looked as though it could be relevant and-

Greenish grey images of the Engineers blinked into existence around them, translucent and huge. Elizabeth let out a yelp and jumped back as she realised she was standing in the middle of one. Four men in their exosuits but no helmets and one female stood where Elizabeth had been. She was bald like the men and stood a little shorter than them. Her proportions were exaggerated much like the statues in the bath house but not quite as flawless. Her exouit looked different to the men's somehow, the detail tailored to her muscular yet feminine form.

Her mouth moved as though she was speaking but there was no sound. Her arms were spread wide in a mimic of the engraving behind her. The men bowed their head, avoiding eye contact as she started to walk forward, her movements lilting and graceful, touching the head of each man on her way, a light touch on the brow but no other acknowledgment before she marched out like a soldier.

The image glittered out of existence, leaving Elizabeth staring at empty air with her mouth hanging open. "What triggered that?" she asked, her words sounding strangely like a gasp.

"I'm not entirely sure," he replied, going back to the console with a frown. Then something occurred to him. Something that he was sure shouldn't be possible, but he had seen little flickers of it here and there as he had used the systems more. "But I think it may have been the ship _yawning_."

"The ship yawning?" Elizabeth asked incredulously. He was well aware of how ridiculous it sounded but little else fitted quite so well with the variables.

"It's almost as though it is waking up rather than simply being switched on and-" His vocal processor failed him as he saw an image of the cephalopod like creature displayed on the console in the middle of a transitory diagram and labelled as parasite stage two.

"I believe I have just come to understand why humans occasionally simply swear as a response to being presented with important information."

* * *

**A/N** Thank you to Mic O'Mally, megumisakura, MaddAlice, smithsbabe65, David 8, Day of the Wolf and PrincessOfDarkness2214 for reviewing the previous chapter. Much appreciated as always.

Just letting people know that my pace on this is probably going to slow down now. I've stared working on another story, one that I'll most likely end up self publishing if I'm happy with it when it's done. Don't worry though, I won't be neglecting this one, I'm just planning on writing one chapter of this then one of the other and so on.

Thank's again everyone that read and reviewed.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Grandchild

Refusing to let go of her hand, David strode at high speed through the ship. Elizabeth practically had to jog to keep up with him. "David, slow down, what's wrong?" In response, he stopped and swept her into his arms only to start running.

"Slowing down is not an option when we may already be too late," he said smoothly as she flung her arms around his neck and held on for dear life.

"Too late for what?" she asked, the walls blurring past at an eye watering speed. The way he had easily picked her up before hadn't been beyond simply a strong human. Now however it was as though she was a feather in his arms. Her weight totally inconsequential. His inhumanity glaringly obvious.

"I assumed that the Engineer and the cephalopod like creature had killed each other, however the data I have just uncovered has led me to revise that assumption." He glanced to her face for a fraction of a second, something that might have been concern on his face. "Statistically it's more likely that the cephalopod like creature impregnated the Engineer. The incubation period wasn't mentioned so the final stage of the parasitic cycle may already have emerged. Especially when considering how rapidly the previous stage developed."

She squeezed her eyes shut against the image of the hell spawn held in the clamps, writhing above her. Dear God, she didn't want to think, didn't what to know, what that thing could birth. "So we're locking the door right?"

"Yes, but not until I'm outside." He carefully put her on her feet as she stared at him with an open mouth. His fingers danced over the control for the door to the pilots room. The door opened and he made to pick her up again, but she stepped back with her hand on his chest. "Doctor Shaw, we don't have time for th-"

"You're just going to leave me here, alone, and go off and maybe get yourself killed? I don't think so. I'm coming with you."

"I can't allow you to put yourself in such danger-"

"What about the danger you'll be putting me in by going off alone?" she snapped, anger and fear blotting out the ache in her stomach. The adrenalin rising once again. David tilted his head and frowned.

"I'm afraid I don't follow your reasoning Doctor Shaw," he replied, his voice as serene as ever but his posture was tense, ramrod straight and ready for action.

"If you die out there then I'm just sitting around waiting to do the same. I don't know how this place works, I don't know the language. Add to that not knowing what's happened to you. You really think I'll be safe in this place? That I won't just end up starving to death or going crazy on my own?" He stood stock still, his eyes slowly tracking down from her face to her feet and back up again. All she could see behind those eyes was analysis. She could almost see him running the numbers on the risks as he stood there.

Then his shoulders slumped and he looked away from her. "You're right. I'm sorry Elizabeth. I am only running fifty three percent of my operating capacity, it's making it difficult to properly analyse situations."

"We'll have to see about improving that," that replied, walking past him into the pilots room. "Just give me a moment to suit up and then we can go and see if I'm a grandmother."

He stood with his back to her as she struggled into her exosuit. It was oddly a relief to get it zipped up, the pressure it put on her incision oddly pleasant. It no longer felt as though her insides were about to fall out and while she was by no means comfortable it was one less thing to worry about. She picked up the fibreglass helmet and walked over to the android and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and quickly glanced over her before giving a slight nod and holding his hand out to her again.

She strode forward and took hold of his hand, looking up to him with a grim smile. He set off back down the corridor, his ridiculous pace returning, but now she was ready for it. The bath had eased the ache of her muscles and she no longer felt about ready to drop but she was reluctant to test the limits put on her by her wound. The grip he had on her hand was tight but not painful and it was oddly reassuring even though she couldn't feel his skin.

They walked in silence until they reached the edge of the ship that contained breathable air. David politely informed her that she should put her helmet on and stood with his hands behind his back, looking out to strange grey-black desert as she clicked it into place. "So when you get annoyed at me I'm Doctor Shaw again?" she said in a feeble attempt to lift the tension. David looked back to her, a startled expression on his face.

"I apologise if I caused any offence," he began. "I didn't mean to add to the stress of the situation." Elizabeth smiled and shook her head before walking over to his to take hold of his hand again.

"You didn't. It was just very," she paused as she struggled to find the right term. Then is occurred to her with a wide and cheeky smile. "Human." David stared at her with wide eyes and a look on his face that was somewhere between offended and overjoyed. "So how are we doing this?" He looked back to the horizon before answering.

"With extreme caution. I mentioned yesterday that I had taken precautions." He reached behind himself, under shirt and pulled out . . . was that a gun? It was ugly and elegant all at once. Vicious and modest. And he was offering it to her. "Have you ever fired a gun before?" She nodded and took it from him, looking it over to see if she could find anything familiar about it. It was huge, build for a much bigger hand than her own. About the length of her forearm and bizarrely light, just a little off being a rifle. Good, she could work with a rifle.

"I used to have to shoot rabbits at my father's house. You?" David's eyebrows rose at her reply, but he didn't vocalise any surprise he might have felt.

"No, but I've studied those that do and I am equipped to learn quickly."

"Do you know how this works?" He nodded and moved a little closer.

"The trigger is where you would expect. Holding it down will engage rapid fire, however that will cause the gun to overheat quickly. The safety is just here, simply run your finger over the groove to turn it off and do so again to turn it back on. I don't believe there will be any notable recoil issues and it seems to run on some sort of internal power source so ammunition won't be a problem." He glanced away from her, seeming uncomfortable somehow. "I'm afraid I was not programmed for combat, I'm not sure how effective I will be, especially considering my reduced capacity."

She felt oddly sorry for him as he refused to meet her eye. She couldn't fathom what it must be like to be forced to react in a certain way without any real understanding of why. It seemed so counterproductive to give him embarrassment, anger, even fear. It wasn't just unnecessary, it verged on cruel.

Elizabeth reached out and lay her free hand on his arm, making her look to her with a slight confused frown. It was at time like this it was so hard to remember that David was a machine.

"Don't worry too much about combat. You never know, we might get lucky for once and get there before it's emerged." He put on his best not quite right smile and nodded his head.

"That would be the most beneficial outcome." Something in his words or his tone or perhaps even his poor imitation of human behaviour made her think that he was only humouring her. Or perhaps putting on a brave face.

She wasn't sure why, but there was something oddly reassuring in having someone to fight _for_. Something instantly less daunting than fighting for her own life was contained in the knowledge that even in her bruised, battered and post surgery state she was _needed_. That she had to look after someone else. To make sure they came back alive and well.

* * *

**A/N** As Always, thank you to Day of th Wolf, megumisakura, MissCaityGrace, Black Rose Kalli, PrincessOfDarkness2214, Mic O'Mally and Just a Girl. Your reviews are very much appriciated.

Well, my other work is going well but my job is being a bit of a hassle. All of my shifts at the moment are for when I'm usually at my best when it comes to writing, so this has been slow in coming. I know this chapter's short, but I really wanted to write the next bit from David's POV.

Anyway, please review and if you spot any mistakes, as always just let me know and I'll fix them.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: David and Goliath

Elizabeth clung onto her seat in the sand cat beside him. She looked slightly queasy as he drove to the wreckage of the life raft at break neck speed. He felt oddly exposed without an exosuit in the company of someone that was using one. Something else to point out that he was other than human.

Despite a possible case of car sickness, Elizabeth seemed to be holding up relatively well. The gun was on her lap and her posture was straight, ready for what was coming. Her hand would still occasionally flick to her stomach, though at the moment she seemed more concerned with keeping a tight grip on the sand cat and on the gun he had given her.

He didn't drive quite as recklessly as he had when he had been on his own, but he did his best to ensure speed. Elizabeth's exosuit only had a limited amount of oxygen and he didn't want to risk her life through being slow. The tracks of his previous trip were still easily visible in the not quite sand. All too soon the life raft came into view. Once at a reasonable distance away David stopped the sand cat and climbed out, keeping his eyes on the suspiciously still crash site.

Elizabeth was soon at his side, the gun in her hand and ready to fire. "So how are we doing this?" she asked, keeping her voice quiet. He could detect no signs of movement from this distance, but a reluctance to approach the crash site rippled across his processors.

"I'll go in first to analyse the situation, if the final stage has not yet emerged then I will drag the Engineer out into the open and fire several rounds into the chest and stomach. If it has emerged, then may I recommend running?"

"You're really not a combat model are you?" Elizabeth said, sounding somewhat unimpressed.

"No, I was programmed for research, manual labour and providing excellent service." She stared at him for a moment before sighing and making to walk over to the crash site. A small wave of negative feedback touched his circuitry at her apparent disappointment and he bypassed the program that was telling him to frown in response before walking ahead of her and maintaining maximum surveillance. From the auditory data he could gather, she seemed to be staying close to him. He thought about warning her back, but quickly discarded the idea. Based on her previous behaviour under similar conditions she would most likely ignore him. A combination of adrenalin and potential danger seemed to make her single minded. He was simply thankful that she wasn't striding ahead of him.

The closer he got to the crash site of the life raft the more his circuitry rippled with protest at his actions. His fingers twitched against the gun, tightening their grip for barely a fraction of a second. Each step was made progressively more difficult as his programming railed against his actions, to the point where he became convinced that the damage done to him had forced a corruption of some key files.

He didn't take his eyes off of the door to the life raft as he moved forwards, his steps slowed, partly out of caution and partly due to his body being on the verge of rebelling against him. He had read books where the protagonist had been physically crippled with fear and had always found it rather annoying. It was somewhat irritating that his systems seemed to have found their own version.

"Stay out here," he said, as quietly as he could while maintaining a reasonable chance that Elizabeth would be able to hear him. Perhaps the powerful crackle across his processors was due to a fault in his logic somewhere, but now was not the time to be running diagnostics. He didn't know if she would happy about being left outside, but the thought of making her see that cephalopod like creature again sent such a strong wave of negative feedback through him that for a moment he thought he knew what pain might be.

Before it could overtake his systems he used a back door shortcut to shut down the reaction. Now wasn't the time for that. His free hand twitched and kept twitching so he clenched it into a fist as he approached the doorway. Each and every processor and circuit in his body screamed out at how illogical this course of action was. How he shouldn't be doing this. All the crackling and calculations and feedback were making it so hard to function properly, especially considering how much he had to work around anyway.

Each step was more difficult than the last as he got closer and closer to the entrance of the life raft. The negative feedback that was coursing through his systems was making the edges of his vision go strangely fuzzy and his sound sensors buzz with white noise. He forged on as warning messages flashed before his eyes. He shut down a diagnostic scan three time before he crossed the threshold.

His processors went wild when he saw the blood, his vision flickering into black and white as his backup systems took over. The Engineer looked like it had been ripped open from the inside, it's entrails spread across the floor. He did a quick scan of the room, now sure that something important had been corrupted as his legs started to step backwards without his permission. His fingers spasmed around the gun as he turned on his heel, his vision not improving.

He turned around just in time to see Elizabeth frown, then look to her left. David mimicked the gesture, wondering what she could be looking at. His flickering black and white vision wasn't exactly helpful in finding what had captured her attention. The dark silica shifted and something seemed to move. Slowly at first, then something dashed toward him, moving as though it was swimming.

Realisation of what it must be overwhelmed his circuitry. Over loading him so all he could do was stand still. In all the years he had been active he had never once crashed. But now all he could do was stand and stare as this horror charged towards him at a speed that he had though impossible for something that was not synthetic.

A strange crackling sound reached him that might have been his name. Then there was a sound like a crack of thunder and his vision went bright white. When he could finally see again the black shape had changed its course and was heading away from him.

And towards Elizabeth.

The full return of his systems was hard and fast. The colour returning to the world as a painful flood, his primary directive flashing before his eyes. Full use of his body returned and he bolted towards his charge. He forced his body to its limit, the cameras of his eyes not able to keep track of the world around him. All he could focus on was Elizabeth. Finally he understood what humans meant when they said blind panic.

Elizabeth was holding the gun with both hands. A look on her face that was somewhere between extreme concentration and a snarl as he ran. Racing the creature. He had to get there. He had to win. If he didn't-

He didn't have the time to scoop her up as he usually did. Instead he crouched low, grabbing her just below the waist as he crashed into her, not breaking step for a moment. She gave a small sound of pain, but he blocked it out, concentrating on running. If they could just get to the sand cat they might be able to escape.

Elizabeth wrapped her legs around him as he ran, leaning over his shoulder. He didn't even have the time to wonder what the hell she was doing before another crack of thunder rattled through the air. Some force flung her backwards. The grip she had on him with her legs didn't slacken and without the warning to adjust for it he pitched forward and they slammed into the ground.

It took a sixteenth of a second for him to realise that she had fired the gun. She grabbed the collar of his suit, pulling him down as she half sat up, her legs still wrapped around him and breathing heavily.

With a sigh she slumped back into the course not quite sand, her hand falling back so that the gun clattered against the rocks. She gave a small relieved laugh, the grip she had on him with her legs falling away, but the hand that had been gripping his collar slid to the back of his neck, holding his face just beneath the helmet of her exosuit.

"It's dead," she said as he became uncomfortably aware of their intimate positioning. Thankful that he was unable to blush, he carefully removed her hand from his neck and stood up. "You okay David?" she asked, looking at him with concern as he offered his hand to her. She took it as he looked back to the creature and the melting pool of rock around it.

Wait, melting?

"I apologise for my ill timed critical systems failure. Hopefully the equipment I need to ensure that it doesn't happen again with still be intact on board the life raft."

She strode past him, towards the creature. "Doctor Shaw? Are you sure that's wise?" he asked, following her while monitoring his systems carefully to see if they were about to freeze up again. They showed no signs of repeating such a malfunction but he still didn't want to get too close to that thing.

"I want to make sure it's dead. And I want to see it." He stayed behind her, not wanting to be in the way if she needed to use the gun again. It was then he realised that his hand that had been holding his own gun was empty. Unnerved that his body had acted on its own once again, he glanced towards the life raft, searching for it. Sure enough his eyes landed on it, laying on the ground.

As much as it meant he was relying on Elizabeth for protection, his programming didn't seem to be as conflicted with it out of his hand. He started to wonder if there was something hiding in his programming that forbid direct acts of violence.

He noticed that she had stopped just in time to not walk into her back. "What the . . ."

David's eyebrows rose at what he saw in front a few feet in front of Elizabeth. The creature was a strange spindly thing with an echo of human anatomy. A fascinating thing with a strange pointed head and human teeth. And on top of that-

"It looks a bit like the carving in that lab," Elizabeth said, covering her nose. "Less human though. And a smaller head." She sighed before speaking again. "How is it's blood melting the silica?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, though the answer may be in the N'Khana."

"The what?" Elizabeth asked as he stared at the body. Just how close it had gotten to killing her rippling across his circuitry.

"Oh, it's what they call the chapel laboratories. English doesn't have a word for it, so I thought it best to borrow theirs." He glanced to Elizabeth before adding, "We should get back to the ship." Still with her eyes on the corpse, Elizabeth gave a nod and started to edge around the forming dip in the sand.

"Sure, I just need to pick up the gun from over there and we can head back." The negative feedback forced him to follow her closer to the life raft, his systems on high alert for another malfunction. Oddly though, Elizabeth didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest other than her hand occasionally flicking to her stomach and her walk being a little shaky.

His vision didn't degrade as it had on his last approach, but something kept dragging his attention back to the corpse. Even as Elizabeth bent down to pick up the gun he couldn't take his eyes off it. "Do we need anything else from here?" His attention snapped back to Elizabeth and it took a fraction of a second for him to properly process what she had said. She truly was a remarkable human being to be so calm after what had just happened.

"Yes, though we can come back at another point if you would prefer." She shook her head and started to walk towards the door of the life raft.

"If we leave it too long the Engineer will start to smell and we'll still have to be back and forth. I'd rather be done with this place as soon as we can be."

Something unpleasant but not debilitating rippled through his circuitry as he carried supplies to the sand cat then trekked back as Elizabeth did the much lighter labour of looking for the laptop that he was sure was in there. He would catch her wincing at a movement that was too sharp, her hand pressing against her stomach. Worse yet he saw her staring at the entwined corpses of the Engineer and the parasite she had recently birthed. Her eyes only snapping away and her search resuming when he made sure she heard his footsteps on the metal floor.

Eventually she held up the laptop and cables in triumph and he had packed as much onto their small unsteady transport as would fit. The drive back was in silence, with the occasional glance from Elizabeth that his data files informed him were most likely out of worry. His circuitry seemed to disapprove every time she did it and despite his primary directive he found himself wishing that he could be anywhere but near her. If he wasn't around her he couldn't let her down again. Equally though he couldn't protect her. Perhaps he could get her to order him to leave her alone for a while.

He kept accessing the video file of his failure without meaning to until it was playing it triplicate on repeat in the background. If this was what having to put up with a more ambiguous directive he was tempted to reset himself back to factory settings and have Doctor Shaw program him properly.

Her suit beeped and announced that there was only ten minutes of oxygen left. Thankfully they were close to the ship and he had no need to accelerate. It also gave him a useful way to avoid contact with Elizabeth if only for a while. She picked up the laptop as he brought the sand cat to a halt. Her suit sent off another warning as she slowly and unsteadily clambered out of the passenger's seat.

"I'll assist you inside then begin relocating the supplies." She gave a nod and started to walk towards the ship. He noticed a light sheen of sweat on her brow and that she was holding the laptop pressed firmly against her stomach. David made sure to stay close to her as he walked to the pilots room. She took her helmet off once they reached a breathable atmosphere. There was a heavy sigh of relief and she flashed him a smile. He returned the expression, but it didn't seem to put her at ease and he wondered if his emotional response files had become corrupted as well.

She set the laptop down on the chair one they were in the pilots room, her hand pressing gently against her abdomen. A pop up reminded him that her wound was still relatively fresh and that he should examine the wound to see if it needs further attention. "Are you alright Doctor Shaw?" he asked, hovering in the doorway. She gave him a small nod, glancing away before taking a tentative step towards him.

"What about you?"

"I am currently running at forty three percent proficiency while running background scans in order to try and locate the source of my critical systems failure." And his failure to actively protect her. She frowned and closed the gap between them as he turned his head away to look to the floor.

"David?" she said softly. "I didn't mean how efficiently are you operating. I meant are you okay? That was the first combat situation you've been in since, well, back on the other ship." He forced a smile but the negative feedback coursing through his systems made it impossible for him to meet her eyes.

"I'll be better when I've located the flaw in my programming that caused my failure," he responded, making sure his voice was bright. She sighed and shook her head before gently laying her hand against his cheek. His programming railed against resisting her as she moved his head so that he was facing her and leaned her forehead against his. Still he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye.

"David," she said so quietly that he almost though his sound equipment had glitched as she brought her other hand up to his face. "Please look at me." His primary directive flashed and his eyes snapped up to hers. He wondered for a moment if she know how much power she had over him, but the look in her eyes stopped him from caring. He had seen that look before. That was how she had looked at Doctor Holloway one the drive back when he had been under the effects of –

He smiled and dipped his finger into the glass of champagne before handing to the Doctor-

The contagion. He forced all of the video files to close, all the written memory files to shut down. He didn't deserve to be looked at like that. With such human concern. Not after what he had put her through.

"Not everyone can pull the trigger," she told him, those big brown eyes staring straight at him. One on her hands slipped around to the back of his neck where he couldn't feeling quite right. The contact made fuzzy like a distorted video from the damage. He froze, his systems going into panic mode, reopening every file linking to anything he had ever done that conflicted with his now primary directive. Was she going to kiss him? The lag caused by opening so many needy files made everything seem so slow. He couldn't quite process what was going on when her eyes fluttered closed. She moved her lips closer to his.

Then right passed as she used the grip he had on the back of his neck to pull him closer, her other arm sliding around his shoulders. All the files causing his lag closed as his primary directive flashed in his consciousness. Was this- it couldn't be, could it? No one had ever done this to him before. Who would want to? What could be gained from hugging a machine?

He looked down her back, wondering when she would let go.

_Care for Doctor Elizabeth Shaw._

He rose his hand up and looked at them. Palms up. He flexed his fingers, unsure. He had seen people do this, both in movies and in his day to day life, though much rarer in reality. He had seen how he was meant to respond, but having never done it himself he wasn't sure how well he could imitate. He had touched her before, even touched her in ways that might be seen as intimate, but there was something fundamentally different about this.

_Care for Doctor Elizabeth Shaw._

Hesitantly, he placed his hands on her back, one sliding up to her opposite shoulder, the other down to her waist. His arms were stiff at first, but she sighed and moved a little closer, pressing against him fully, burying her head in his neck and letting out a sigh. His operating capacity increased by 7.82% as positive feedback washed over his processors. He relaxed his arms, allowing his hold on her to tighten a little, less worried about putting too much pressure on her fragile body.

The experience was a pleasant one and he began to understand why humans enjoyed physical contact. While he wasn't sure he was gaining comfort from the gesture, it had certainly soothed his circuitry out of its frenzy. Some of the negative feedback that had been crackling about unchecked eased and disappeared.

"You need to stop beating yourself up over what happened. It wasn't your fault and you still managed to save my life. Besides, I probably connected something wrong while I was putting your head back on." Her grip on him tightened briefly before she began to let go. He followed her lead. His processors still humming pleasantly at his compliance with his primary directive.

Her smile was less worried and more embarrassed as she let go of him. Her cheeks pink and her eyes flicking away every now and again. He wondered if he had responded in the wrong way at some point, but such thoughts were swept away when she said, "I wish I could help carry things in hear. I feel a bit useless just sat around."

"Even if your oxygen levels in the suit had not been depleted I would still insist on doing it alone. Your wound has not yet recovered enough for heavy lifting." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked away. Her blush deepening. "Though if you really want something to do, you could check the functional status of the laptop." It felt odd to be giving his owner orders, but her eyes flicked to him, a smile on her face as she gave him a nod.

* * *

A/N Thank you to Missy betty, Ati-Cha, MonDieu666, Mythra Mystic, Ivory Tears, Brandi96, somejuliet, savyleec, The Gein Way, redxcanary, GalanthaDreams, dina, DaiKuro-chan, Seraphim-Burning, Kawaiicreole, Papilionaceous, megumisakura, mupp3tbab3h, David 8, smithsbabe65, MaddAlice and mwfte for reviewing the last chapter. Wow, I wasn't expecting that much of a response.

Also, I am so sorry for this taking so long, but the scenes that are clearest in my head are often the most difficult to write. Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit easier. I am not abandoning this, I just have a lot of other commitments. Again, sorry. On the plus side at least it's a damn long chapter.


End file.
